Top Plays of 2015

Last year we brought you the Top 14 of 2014 based off of ESPN's daily Top Ten.  To be honest, and I don't know what this says about me, but my favorite things I look forward to on Friday is SportCenter's Not Top Ten.  This is a blooper reel of sports gone wrong from the past week.  I was going to have a blooper reel from our past year but really all we came up with was highlights.  We have been blessed this year. 

1. Hanging out with each other.  In looking back over this year we have had a lot of highlights but we both agree that we just love hanging out together which is why we have enjoyed many of the other things on this list.  

2. New computer.  I have been putting off getting a new computer as long as I could.  We finally caved and got a new laptop which has been great (besides trying to figure out how to run Windows 10).  In this instant information age it is nice to be able to get information instantly instead of waiting 5 or 10 minutes for a page to load.

3. San Diego and screen printer.  As you may recall, Arthur had the wonderful opportunity to go to San Diego through his company to review screen printers.  While there, he got the opportunity to see the large navy ships that had been on his bucket list, as well as the legendary Midway.

4. Increased involvement in church.  We are continuing to mentor in youth group but have gotten more involved in church which overall has been positive.  Arthur is on several committees.  I play in the bell choir and help with the community garden.  We also joined a new Bible study.

5. Hiking.  We have walked a lot of miles across the state this year.  Some through Kansas “cedar forests”, prairies, and back country dirt roads.  We fought blisters, bug bites, and sunburns.  We enjoyed scenery not out a window speeding by but spreading out before our feet to really experience it.  

6. Tall Grass Prairie (here and here).  This is currently our favorite place to hike in the state through the rolling Flint Hills.  We have wandered through cattle and bison herds.  There are miles and miles of trails and there were places that we couldn’t see anything that was man-made on the horizon.  Also afterwards we always eat at Ad Astra which is one of our new favorite restaurants.  

7. Hut to hut hike.  This would probably be our top highlight.  We went on an 8 day backpacking trip to the high mountain huts throughout New Hampshire’s White Mountains.  We saw and experienced some iconic hikes such as the Presidential Range to Mount Washington and Falling Water trail up to the Franconia Ridge.  We learned the basics of backpacking, discovered what our bodies could handle physically, and met some great people that we hiked with for a week.  Frequently Arthur would tell me, “This trip is awesome”, and it was an experience of a lifetime for us.

8. Boston.  We flew in and out of Boston on our trip to the Northeast.  We had great Italian food, lobster bisque, and Boston cream pie.  We navigated airports, bus stations, and the subway.  We walked through history seeing landmarks such as Paul Revere’s house, the USS Constitution, and the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill.  We also figured out how to understand people who disregard the letter R.  

9. Triathlon.  This is becoming a tradition for us to finish out our summer is the Salty Dog triathlon.  This year we both took home medals in our age groups and improved our times from the previous year.  We also enjoyed training for the most part (Arthur still doesn’t like running) throughout the summer with pool workouts and bike rides.  

10. Business skills- Arthur has really enjoyed acquiring new skills to apply at work.  This year, he got fairly proficient in Visual Basic and has been reviewing his old statistics textbook to apply automated statistical methods to some of the controls in the processes on which he works.  It has truly opened up a new exciting world to him.  In the new year, he hopes to increase his prowess with the Python programming language, which has a little more ability to get things "talking" to each other, and he's extremely excited about all the cool things he has dreamed up for work.

11. Getting a tent.  Over this year we have basically doubled our outdoor equipment with our new tent as a major purchase.  I love the idea of the freedom to stay wherever we want in the great outdoors.  I know that in real life camping may not be as wonderful as I imagine but I am excited for camping in 2016 (Maybe our camping forays will provide stories for a blooper reel next year)

12. Educational or thought-provoking TVshows/internet videos. As we have mentioned before we could be classified as educational junkies.  We love learning, watching, doing, or experiencing new things.  The internet brings these opportunities to our finger tips and let's us explore the world.  The past few evenings "we" have been trying to survive on Vancouver Island through Alone or touring Madrid, Spain while watching Rick Steve's Europe.

13. Half Marathon.  I'm trying to decide if this was a highlight.  I have love/hate memories of running this race.  I loved running through the Flint Hills, downtown Manhattan, and K-State's campus.  The course was beautiful.  I hated about every step past mile 10 and the last few hills.  Some days I loved training for this race and other days I hated running endless laps around the track for tempo miles. 

14. Trying new things.  On a few occasions we went past watching new experiences on TV and tried them ourselves.  Arthur now shaves with a safety razor.  I'm learning to paint with watercolors.  In the kitchen I experimented with Swedish pancakes.  Arthur is trying new workouts.  We both learned a lot about backpacking. 

15. St. Louis Art museum.  The St. Louis Art museum made quite the impression an Arthur and he talks about it frequently.  He was most impressed by the older pieces that could almost be in a history museum such as furniture. 

So there are our Top Plays of 2015.  It's always fun to look back over the memories of the past year but also some excitement over what is going to make our list in the year to come.  Happy New Year! Omnia Vincit Amor.